


More Distant Than Stars and Nearer Than the Eye

by ImmortalxSnow



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: AruAni, Chapter 131, Drabble, F/M, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Self-indulgent cuteness, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:08:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26721934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImmortalxSnow/pseuds/ImmortalxSnow
Summary: "For so long, he had wanted only to see her, and now they could not stop gazing at each other." Armin and Annie sit quietly together in the strange peace of a collapsing world. [AruAni drabble based on that scene from chapter 131. You know which one.]
Relationships: Armin Arlert/Annie Leonhart
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	More Distant Than Stars and Nearer Than the Eye

_What is this face, less clear and clearer_

_The pulse in the arm, less strong and stronger—_

_Given or lent? More distant than stars and nearer than the eye_

—T.S. Eliot, “Marina”

* * *

The ocean stretched all around them, endless and ever-new as eternity, while the cool wind stirred the waves and swept across the deck. There was no other noise but the cries of the seagulls swooping through the sky, occasionally interrupting their dance to perch on the rail beside the two young titan-shifters. It was an absurd peace, as strange and otherworldly as the land that had been crushed by the wall titans and left in utter stillness, or as that desolate desert where Armin had found himself staring at Eren.

He and Annie had let their conversation fade into silence. True, he had so many things he wanted to tell her, and even more questions he wanted her to answer, but they had no time to talk. The world was ending, collapsing, narrowing down to here, now, this moment, this place, stripping everything else away.

So they looked at each other. Not always at the same time—the ache in his heart was almost too intense for him to meet her eyes—and certainly not for as long as he wanted; not long enough for him to understand her. But those glimpses lasted just long enough for him to see anew the kindness in her weary eyes, which lit up with astonishing vulnerability when she looked at him, and to glimpse the shy longing with which she had slowly moved closer until their knees were just touching.

She was _there_. At the twilight of the world, she was next to him, her body beside his body. He could not help but be filled with wonder. For so long, he had wanted only to see her, and now they could not stop gazing at each other.

In the fragile, fledgling peace that existed only for them, that was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> As you can see, the title of this fic is a line from “Marina,” one of my favorite poems. I thought that line captured Armin’s relationship to the world beyond the walls (which, of course, he and Annie were discussing at the end of chapter 131, when this fic takes place). The outside world isn’t literally “more distant than stars,” of course, but when he was a child, it was a far-off place, little more than a dream. Now that he’s an adult, he (unlike Eren) doesn’t see the world as some nebulous concept, but as something given physical form in the people he loves—the people who are near to him. And Annie especially is “nearer than the eye”: she and Armin are parts of each other, two halves of a whole, as befits lovers.


End file.
